Formatting Basics

This tutorial will go over the basics of formatting your reports in FileMaker by using the Inspector tool

Before we begin, a note: this is not meant to be a comprehensive guide on how to create layouts in FileMaker... there are some very complex formatting options available which we will not be going over... if you're interested in more in-depth information, we recommend you check out either of the following... FileMaker Web site: FileMaker Training SeriesLynda tutorials: FileMaker Training and Tutorials | Lynda.com

1. Editing on screen directly

There's a couple of useful things to note before moving on to the Inspector tool.

1. Rulers: Pretty self-explanatory... you can change the units by clicking on "in" in the top-left corner. You can also create guide-lines by clicking and dragging from these rulers. 2. Header: This is the area that will appear at the top of every page... by default it will contain 3. Leading Sub-Summary(s): These areas define what the summary breaks will look like... For example, these define how the phase or status breaks will look IF you sort by phase and/or status... if you delete these you will be unable to do sub-sorts (phase, status, etc.) 4. Body: This is the main area with all your information... you'll notice that all of the fields are way taller than they need to be, but they will shrink based on the amount of content in the fields (this is denoted by the upward facing arrows at the bottom of the fields) 5. Trailing Grand Summary: This is the summary that will show up at the end of your report. It could be a total quantity count or a cost total or some other value. 6. Footer: This is the area that will appear at the bottom of every page... by default it contains areas for page counts and a logo 7. Dotted Lines: These indicate the page breaks... if the layout continues past these marks it will bleed onto the next page. You can find more information about sizing reports here: (Change the Page Size of your Reports)

Fields here can be moved and resized in the normal way, by clicking and dragging, etc... To add new fields, it's best to take them from the Starter layout... for more details on that, check out this tutorial: (COMING SOON)

Adding other features

1. Show or hide the status toolbar: Click on this to show the status toolbar (red box) 2. Basic features tools: from left to right: Select, Text, Line, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Oval. To use these, just select the tool and click in the layout. Nothing more to it. 3. More advanced features tools: these tools involve data from other tables or layouts in SignAgent Pro™ and should probably be avoided unless you're an expert or willing to experiment a bit. From left to right: Field/Control, Button/Popover Button, Tab Control/Slide Control, Portal, Chart, Web Viewer, Add Field, Add Part, Format Painter

These features can all also be found in the Insert menu.

The Inspector: Position Tab

The most useful tool in our formatting arsenal is the Inspector. It contains all the most important formatting tools and options for editing parts, objects, and fields in the layout. You can access the Inspector by pressing command + i (ctrl + i on PC) on by going to View > Inspector

1. Here you can provide whichever field you've selected with a name and a tooltip 2. Here you can set the exact position of the field or part from the origin (0, 0; the top-left corner) 3. Here you can set the exact size of the field. By default, this size is adjusted from the top and left edges. This default can be changed in the Autosizing part below 4. Here you can decide how the resizing of fields will occur... by default it is from the top and left edges, but you can change that here. 5. Here you can change the alignment... to use this you must have multiple objects selected. 6. Here you can adjust the spacing of the objects. These tools will make for even spacing between objects. 7. Here you can resize the objects... to use this you must have multiple objects selected. 8. Here you can change grouping options... to use this you must have multiple objects selected. 9. Here you can lock or unlock the objects selected. 10. Here you can change the order of arrangement of the objects. 11. These options allow you to remove blank space by sliding content up or left (this is why the objects in the report are taller than necessary) It will automatically resize the object based on the content contained. You can also change the visibility of objects when printing. 12. Here you can change grid options... visibility, major and minor grid lines, etc.

The Inspector: Appearance Tab

You'll notice we skipped the Styles tab... This tab will only show up in FileMaker Pro 13, and is just a list of different styles you may have saved.

1. Here you can set Styles and Themes... if you set a certain style of formatting that you like, you can save it for later use. 2. Here you can set basic graphic options, such as background fill colour, outline and line colour, and corner radius. 3. Here you can set Advanced Graphics options, such as shadows and padding from the edges 4. Here you can set Text options, pretty self-explanatory 5. Here you can set paragraph options, from basic alignment options to spacing between lines and indent options. 6. Here you can set manual tab widths in messages.

The Inspector: Data Tab

1. Data: This outlines exactly what is being displayed, and what table it is being taken from. 2. Control Style: This describes what sort of object this is 3. Behaviour: This outlines what sort of behaviour this object has in different modes (Preview, browse, find, etc.) 4. Data formatting: This is used mainly for formatting images; it will effect how it is cropped and how it is aligned.